Chairman's Blog

In my last blog of 2011 I mentioned how my running had improved as I got myself back up to a decent level of fitness for the Edinburgh marathon in May. This came to a shuddering halt on New Years Day when I went over on my ankle whilst out training, unfortunately I was a couple of miles from the nearest road so it was a pretty miserable me that limped home. I then compounded things by spending the rest of the day working on the farm so by the time I put my feet up in the evening it was a very swollen ankle indeed. So ten days without a run in that crucial period when we all like to be working off our Christmas excess left me pretty frustrated. Just as this was starting to heal I then trapped something in my arm so I am beginning to feel my age and as they say things come in threes so lets see what happens next.

The Saturday after New Year I got out for an 18 mile leg stretching walk with Simon Aspinall of Catch 22, www.c22.co.uk, it was probably one of the wettest walks we'd ever done but satisfying none the less followed up by dinner and a few drinks which always taste better when earned. As we are still in the caravan during the cottage renovation friends and family are getting more visits than usual at the moment, it doesn't take much to tempt me to a warm, dry, stable bed compared to the delightfully situated but coldish static caravan that is temporary home at the moment.

BIFM offices closed down over Christmas but the team have already had their staff kick off day focussing on ways of working and of course delivering the strategy agreed by the board. You can see an update on the ways of working from interim CEO Gareth @  http://www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/news/6644. I had a day in the office late last week and remain excited and positive about the challenges and opportunities ahead. Over the remainder of the month I am meeting with the remuneration committee, attending the fellows AGM as well as meeting a number of our corporate partners. Looking to the future we are already seeing bookings coming in for the ThinkFM conference later in the year, in 2012 it will be held in London and you can find more details at http://www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/news/6642 along with an early bird offer. The BIFM awards are now open as well for 2012 so keep an eye on the BIFM website for entry details as well as information on the new category.

I have been following the news of the new high speed train link which has been approved and the impact it will have on the regions it serves. Firstly can I say I sympathise with anyone who is in the path of or close to its building as it will have a huge impact im sure. However, looking at the benefits we must invest more in high speed travel  for passengers and also getting more freight off the roads, we lag behind many countries in this respect. With our population and its expected growth there is no future in road building although we do need to make better use of the existing road network. I am a regular user of north east and west coast main lines to London, the west cost is a good service but very close to capacity at peak and off peak already, the east coast is again heavily used and also lagging behind in investment and serviceability. We need to stop having the debate about rail subsidy, the fact is its extremely difficult to run a railway at a profit but the intangible benefits to society are huge, visit the railway system in Germany if you need proof. So it's a big tick from me although I estimate that by the time the link to my part of the world is completed  . . . . . . . . . . . . I should just about be retiring!

It was awful to see pictures of the cruise ship which has sunk off the Italian coast, it looks like a serious error on either the crew or technologies part or maybe a mixture of the two. However its important in such scenarios that the truth comes out and rather than finger pointing we deal in facts and ensure that lessons are learned. This is a lesson we can all take in to our roles in FM. How many times has something gone wrong and then you find the initial prognosis is not what you thought? Its often a much safer bet to wait until you have all, or a large percentage, of the facts. Equally important though is to test you systems, learn from any mistakes and never think that your building, site, operation etc are immune from disaster.

Well that's all for now, as ever feel free to contact me if I can help in anyway, you can leave a comment if you are logged on or get me on twitter, you can follow me on Twitter, @ibroadbent_bifm